Episode 248 - J1 Matchday 30

On this week's episode of J-Talk Dan Orlowitz guests to round up all of the results from J1 Matchday 30, while there are also special appearances from our Kawasaki correspondent Neil Debnam, and our Grampus guy Adrian Serna, after huge wins for their respective teams over the weekend.

In Part 1 Neil joins us to talk about the thrilling spectacle that was Frontale's 5-3 home win over an increasingly desperate Kobe side on Saturday night that, coupled with Hiroshima's latest implosion, away at Shimizu, sees Kawasaki four points clear with four to play (to 30:05).

Then Dan and I cover wins for both Osaka clubs, and Urawa over Kashima (to 37:15), before Adrian joins us to chat about sitting in 'the yellow sea' (amongst the Kashiwa fans) and Nagoya's crunch 1-0 win at Reysol last Friday night, as well as his confidence that Grampus will still be in J1 in 2019. We also discuss Tosu, and their prospects now that Massimo Ficcadenti has been shown the door and Fernando Torres is back amongst the goals, while Adrian has concerns that the managerial merry-go-round at Kobe could doom them to finish in the bottom three (to 56:20).

From there Dan and I wrap up the other two games from the matchday (to 1:02:45), and look ahead to Saturday's Levain Cup final, Kashima's ACL semi final 2nd leg vs Suwon and the Emperor's Cup quarter finals, before finishing on a high by discussing Japan's terrific 4-3 win over Uruguay last week.

Follow my guests on twitter and the web:

Dan - @aishiterutokyo

Dan's archive at The Japan Times

Neil - @frontalerabbit

Neil's Frontale Rabbit blog

Adrian - @758adrian

K League United's ACL Writer's Chat - includes podcast at bottom of article